East Tennessean

Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: The Scene

Media Credit: Travis Brown The Chinese New Year, held on Saturday, Feb. 10, had a huge turnout. [Click to enlarge]

The Chinese Student and Scholar Association of ETSU shared their culture and made their voices heard on Saturday, Feb. 7. They organized their New Year celebration, which they call the spring festival. This festival is unique to all Chinese living in and out of China. It is the emblem of Chinese identity and culture.
This event took place at the CPA Multipurpose Room and every guest had to sign an attendance sheet. This formality, as their presidentWen Jun Liu confirmed, was to keep track of the number of students, staff and others who are either Chinese or love Chinese culture. The guests consisted of young, old and people of all races.
There were two masters of ceremonies, Yue Pan, who is the vice president, and Weisong Tu. Pan spoke in English while Tu translated to Chinese. This was due to the fact that some elderly Chinese guests from the community were present who could not speak English.
They began the event by thanking the Office of Multicultural Affairs for making it possible for them to carry out their activities. Director Laura Terry urged all present to check on the events on the multicultural affairs calendar as they were meant to provide a conducive and welcoming community for all students.
Wen Jun Liu, a senior majoring in broadcasting, reiterated the need for cultural diversity and fellowship while thanking all for making it to this unique event. The guests were further stunned by the overwhelming videos showing the rich Chinese celebration of the spring festival with a very colorful and acrobatic style. This gave all present a glimpse of Chinese celebration and culture.
My favorite part was the game of "wishes" as they call it. The game consisted of passing a red ball around while playing soft Chinese music in the background. Whenever the music stops, the person with the ball is supposed to pronounce a Chinese word on the projected screen. If done correctly, he or she gets a gift.
The ball stopped on me as I tried passing it over. With much hesitation, I finally made it to the front of the hall and with luck on my side, won a Chinese hat.
After this game, a line was quickly formed by the audience as they headed towards the table which had assorted Chinese dishes.
I was personally surprised or rather embarrassed when the audience number reduced to half after eating. Despite the decrease in guests, the activites continued on when after eating a Chinese girl quickly came up to perform a dance. This was followed by a violin performance that held the audience spellbound.
Towards the end of the evening was the crowning performance by Pan who sang "If I Ain't Got You'." This was a second-to-none performance and very overwhelming.
This event was one in a million and I must say I was privileged to be a witness to all the fabulous performance of my fellow student.
Students who are also willing to work together and to be there for each other. Students could devote time, energy and resources to make others learn about their culture.
This I must say is within the finites of true patriotism, or even more.

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